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Examples of seemingly interminable wars were the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), Eighty Years' War (1568-1638), the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the Crusades (a series of nine related episodes over a long period 1095-1291), and the Northern Crusades (beginning 1193 and ongoing through the 16th century).
The Cold War, lasting almost 50 years, is an example of such a war, although largely fought by the major powers through a large number of small "proxy wars", where the major powers provided aid to various local factions engaged in so-called "wars of national liberation". When the major powers became directly involved, as the U.S. in the war in Vietnam, or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the results were generally a disaster for the major power. Also a protracted conflict was liberation of Vietnam by Viet Cong and eventually North Vietnamese, who fought against Japanese, French, U.S. and southern Vietnamese forces - 1942 -1973).
The current War on Terrorism is widely considered to be an attempt to create a state of perpetual war, as terrorism is rarely under the control of a single authority who can clearly surrender - and usually can keep recruiting even under extreme pressure. The Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes against nations with certain technological and military capacities that 'may threaten' the United States also implies a perpetual war, as these capacities proliferate into the hands of greater numbers of less friendly nations, and a greater number of non–state and anti–state (but not anarchistic) radical groups, and become cheaper to exploit in a threatening way. President Bush said in August 2004 that he believes the "War on Terror" is "not winnable," implying that he plans to wage a perpetual war without end. To some extent this is a definitional problem - calling something a war does not make it a war. War in the conventional sense implies that there are battlesSee also the town of Battle, East Sussex, England Generally, a battle is an instance of combat between two or more parties wherein each group will seek to defeat the others. Battles are most often fought during wars. Battles may be small scale, only invol between combatants, that there is a definitive termination of hostilities, perhaps with a winner and loser, as is the case with some wars, or simply relief for the opponents, as in the Cold War or the war in LebanonAlternate uses: see Lebanon (disambiguation The Lebanese Republic or Lebanon is a country in Southwest Asia, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It is considered to be one of the fifteen lands that comprise the so-called " Cradle of Humanity". Lebanon is bor. This appears not to apply well to the politician'sA politician is an individual involved in politics, sometimes this may include political scientists. In other settings, a politician is a type of political figure who participates in a government. In Western democracies, the term is generally restricted t use of the term as in a War on Drugs ( ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan ( February 6, 1911 June 5, 2004) was the 40th ( 1981 1989) President of the United States and the 33rd ( 1967 1975) Governor of California. Reagan was also an actor in films before entering politics. Early life and career Reagan was b), or a War on PovertySocial Justice The War on Poverty (1964-1968) was a campaign of legislation and social services aimed at reducing or eliminating poverty in the United States of America. The term was first introduced by Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union addr ( JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson ( August 27, 1908 January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ was an American politician. After serving a long career in U. legislatures, Johnson became the Vice President under John F. Kennedy ( 1961 1963) and later ascended to the), or a War on Cancer ( NixonRichard Milhous Nixon ( January 9, 1913 April 22, 1994) was the thirty-sixth ( 1953 1961) Vice President, and the thirty-seventh ( 1969 1974) President of the United States. He is the only man to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to), and now a War on Terrorism ( Bush). Perhaps it would have been better (however unlikely) for Bush use the Arabic term jihad in its greater sense, which means struggle but which implies neither victory, defeat, nor termination.